Dragons are creatures with nearly unlimited life spans. They can survive for long periods of time, and no one has found a dragon that has died of old age. Adolescence is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling's wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. Once they hit adolescence, hatchlings change quickly, maturing to their full forms in only 2 years.

Dragons don't communicate with each other verbally, but they will growl to scare off predators and frighten prey. Young dragons will emit an extremely high-pitched squeal when they are frightened. To communicate, they use telepathy with each other and to speak to other creatures.

Mint colored dragons are the most peaceful of all dragons; they only eat plants unless they scavenge meat from an already dead animal. They also have no ways to attack others or defend themselves. They are much smaller than other forms of dragons since they only double in size when they mature. Mint dragons are unable to use magic and cannot fly since they lack wings. Their looks have given rise to the common insult of calling dragons "large lizards."

Having no magic and little manual dexterity, Noewun was always fascinated by the stories about the tools humans used. Growing up, she begged the adult dragons for samples of human work, and they brought samples of such work back to the weyr and gave them to her as souvenirs. She kept them and organized them. As an adult she remains fascinated by human tools, but has also begun to keep track of the other things the weyr has in storage or simply left lying around. She keeps perishable items out of the wind and weather and keeps track of where things are so that other dragons in the weyr ask if they can't remember where an item is.